The Chicago Bears meat and potatoes draft with a side of HITS | Part 1

Chicago Bears big body top recruits

This draft class for the Chicago Bears should be called the meat and potatoes group. The Bears drafted big athletic bodies that embody the Matt Eberflus HITS principle. I will try not to compare Jalen Carter too much to the three defensive tackles the Bears drafted. However, Gervon Dexter was ahead of Will Anderson and Carter as defensive linemen coming into college. All three had different play styles. Dexter was known as the basketball player at the defensive line position due to his highly productive basketball career.

Dexter played as a read-and-react interior defensive lineman at Florida. I won't lie; I had many opportunities to draft him in both mock drafts. I couldn't do it. Dexter, at first glance, looked slow and needed more production that hit my minimal requirements. Now that he is a Chicago Bear, I have had the time to look deeper into him. Dexter is way more explosive than I realized. One of his biggest knocks also proves that he is very talented. Dexter will need to find a way to put it together. 

Dexter's biggest negative is why he didn't vault himself into the first round of the 2023 NFL draft class. He struggles to react to the ball being snapped—one of the simplest things a player can do. Most of the Florida defensive linemen struggled to time the snap. However, that late reaction showed off his abilities everywhere else. Dexter racked up 125 total tackles over his three-year career in Florida.